discolored brittle leaves unhappy plant

I am at a complete loss. I know i ask a lot of questions from this forum and for that i do apologize and i am grateful for every response. As i constantly thrive to be successful there are just so many obstacles.

So the story begins....

These are clones from a flowering plant. They were fine up to transplanting from 1 gallon to 3 gallon pots. Then i started noticing this rust looking shit.

72-74 degrees day, 60-62 at night.
RO water
no nutes right now, just TGA bagged soil with the popular SS routine.
Completely sterile environment.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that cal or mag deficiency. But from what i understand, there is loads of it in the highly amended soil that i use. So what is this? The leaves that are producing this error are brittle to the touch.

Pre-environment was kind of a mess. At first we were using fluorescent lights. Well it just wasnt enough light plain and simple, and we were fighting low temps around 62-64 degrees daytime, we switched to using our 1000w HID light and put a MH bulb in. Since then, we have maintained 72-74 degrees.

Heres the stress i know i brought on...

6 days ago they were moved and had climate changes from 64-62 degrees from the 72-74 that they were in since transplanted into 1 gallon pots. This went on for a few days until we fixed it. A few days after we transplanted into 3 gallons as well. Ever since then they just don't look happy and started producing these weird discolored leaves.

I don't know how much time i actually have to fix this issue so i am on complete standby until i get a response. Thanks!!!

Here are pics from before the crazy climate shift and 1 to 3 gallon transplant, roughly 9 days ago. Only the air-pots where the ones that were transplanted.

Here they are now....With the issues described.

i find it odd that the old original growth has not yet fallen off yet and is producing this same exact look. Does that shit need to be removed from the plant? Is it possible that it is an infection spreading?

from this chart. http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-symptoms-pictures It looks like a ph fluctuation. maybe when you repotted? The brittle leaves are older and damaged. I would take the damaged leaves off. To me the new growth looks good. Cal is usually more dark, rusted spots...splotchy. I think they are growing or have grown out of it. Good luck

edispilf said:

from this chart. http://www.growweedeasy.com/marijuana-symptoms-pictures It looks like a ph fluctuation. maybe when you repotted? The brittle leaves are older and damaged. I would take the damaged leaves off. To me the new growth looks good. Cal is usually more dark, rusted spots...splotchy. I think they are growing or have grown out of it. Good luck

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Well fuck. How about this for PH fluctuation....My local hydro store got me to try the General Hydroponics GO BOX...., these guys clearly grow weed and are HUGE stoners. So i thought i would give it a go for a 1 a week nute tea, aerated of course....And i made the rookie mistake of not phing it.....or even checking the ph....

But i found some information about the Go box...

"3: Do NOT pH your nutrient with this line. The bacterial waste will AUTOMATICALLY bring the pH to where it SHOULD be. If you are using distilled or R/O water, and fear acidity as low as 3.5, you can pH--- BUT ONLY WITH ORGANIC pH PRODUCTS!
Synthetic pH up/down will KILL YOUR BENEFICIAL BACTERIA just as badly as CHLORAMINE will. I recommend using Earth Juice pH Crystals. I DO NOT recommend vinegar. Your pH should be safe as low as 4.5 because it will pick up QUICKLY in the medium. Measure your medium pH in 2 days after feeding by digging out a sample from below the surface and mixing it with distilled water and letting it sit 10+ minutes before testing with a pH pen if you want to see what I mean. Don't waste time pH'ing for R/O or distilled IF YOUR PLANTS SHOW NO PROBLEMS WITH IT. Again, filtered tap is better since it already has buffers."


The problem is, i have no idea what the PH was, and i AM using RO water....So i am tempted to mix a batch and see what the ph actually was.

And that does lead me to another question. Is there a point in aerating this mix or can i just give it directly, once a week? Keep in mind i am using the TGA Bagged super soil, but i dont think it will hurt to give it a little extra kick once a week, or so i thought.

Where is that info from? Is it from GH?

edispilf said:

Where is that info from? Is it from GH?

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I dont honestly know where it is from, i came across it by google. It was a post from an amazon review.

hmm. ok. Well yes I would keep it aerated if you're not using it all at once, and I would keep an eye on the ph even if it says you don't have to. You're plants are looking good though and like I said I think they've grown out of the problem. Good luck

Reporting 4 days later with Soil PH testing and NPK soil testing. Have not given them anything extra in over a week, they dont seem to be getting much worse, but they arent getting better. I have been closely monitoring my waterings with a moisture meter just to rule that out completely, for $12 bucks. Never hurts to have one. Everything is ok there, not under, not over watering...Second, i picked up a Soil PH meter, its been in soil for about 2 hours now, i have reason to believe it is pretty accurate. It comes to 7.0. I also did the soil PH test where you take a sample, and mix it with 1 part soil, 5 parts RO, or distilled, let sit for 10-15 minutes, and use your water PH meter. That, too, came to 7.0....And lastly i ran a soil sample test, which consisted of PH, N,P,K. I am posting this to not only find an answer but to get another eye on the samples...

To me, it looks like the GREEN tube, (PH) is at 7.0 Neutral, the PURPLE tube (Nitrogen) is basically through the roof!!! the BLUE tube (phosphorous) is very low, and Potash apears to be medium.

What really concerns me is that this may just be Nitrogen toxicity, can anyone help confirm?

Bump....Is it possible that the soil is not aerated enough??? Perhaps not enough perlite? Its not showing any sign of burning that would resemble over feeding... Just drooping like a mother fuck and stems going purple all over the place.

they look fine, maybe over watered but i can't tell. some run droopy, some reach for the sky. either way i think you reaching for problems.

It looks likes theres plenty of perlite. Remember perlite holds water as well as air. Its the air pockets when they're dry that you want for drainage and Oxygen. Your leaves look sleepy. Did you take this picture before bedtime?

PH instability though, meaning it started low or high changed to....in your case 7. THat would cause those spots. Or my other thought is a micro nutrient of some kind. They getting some cal/magnesium of some sort? and iron? Those spots look similar to calcium or manganese(a rare case but possible) issues. Those newer pics actually look quite healthy minus droop. The spots on the leaves won't recover but as long as new growth looks like it does in those pics your plants will be fine. N toxicity normally creates a much more dramatic claw thing and a darker green then that. If your worried about it just plain water them the next couple times.

Fease said:

It looks likes theres plenty of perlite. Remember perlite holds water as well as air. Its the air pockets when they're dry that you want for drainage and Oxygen. Your leaves look sleepy. Did you take this picture before bedtime?

PH instability though, meaning it started low or high changed to....in your case 7. THat would cause those spots. Or my other thought is a micro nutrient of some kind. They getting some cal/magnesium of some sort? and iron? Those spots look similar to calcium or manganese(a rare case but possible) issues. Those newer pics actually look quite healthy minus droop. The spots on the leaves won't recover but as long as new growth looks like it does in those pics your plants will be fine. N toxicity normally creates a much more dramatic claw thing and a darker green then that. If your worried about it just plain water them the next couple times.

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Oh yea, they are getting plenty of everything i promise! I cut all the old growth that was showing signs of these issues off the plant, nothing new has developed in the case of the spots, just the drooping is what is bothering me!! They are on a 20/4 right now, this was taken roughly 10 hours in. They are on their 3rd plain 6.2PH watering since i gave them a nute tea from the General Hydroponics GO-BOX. Its just odd, this started happening when i transplanted them from 1 gallons to 3 gallons, and gave them their first nute tea from this GO-BOX that my local hydro store swears by! I mean, the line up has anything and everything, the 1 thing i did notice in "its" version of molasses was the sulfer content, i did not like that, because i was always told to steer away from it.

Perhaps its trying to get used to this super soil? Like i said, no burning going on right now, but those droopy leaves feel dry and if i play with them enough they might crack....But my RH is 40%-45% 72-74 degrees!!!

Most likely the leaf damage from the first pictures was a Calcium lockout from low pH but it could be other issues.

As for your plants your slight under curl looks to me like nitrogen toxicity. What's in your soil mix?

New soil is a bit of a shocker. I got a burn spot like that after a heavier nuting for the first time. Didn't even notice the "Dry Brittle" leaves part in the title of this post lol. That does sound like N toxicity when you combine that info with the drooping

well its a very common mix....its tga's bagged stuff. But its not the premixed. You buy it in a 25lb bag and have to add your own 8-10 base soil to it, ferment for 30-60 days ect. For me, i used roots organic as a base soil.

It is very important to go look at post #11 with attached pictures. I did a soil sample! )) I will get you the analysis of the raw super soil mix.